Sponsored Athletes

Sponsored Team

Ether – 4way VFS

Elite Team

*Coming Soon

Tunnel Flyers

Waz

WAZ is no newcomer to the skydiving world. His very first skydive was on May 5th 2005, and since then he has over 3300 skydives, 35 base jumps, more than 150 wingsuit jumps, and over 200 hours of tunnel time. Waz currently has Tandem, AFF, IAD, and CCH Skydive ratings and is a Level 4 Tunnel Instructor and Instructor Trainer Level 2 in wind tunnel ratings. Waz is not only a talented Skydiver; he also studied Biology and Theatre at Langston University. His creativity does not end in theatre; he wrote, recorded and produced “Free Flyer on a Sunday” on the Parachute Music Album. His song has been featured on various skydiving videos and is currently available on iTunes now!

“My life’s purpose is sharing my love of life with everyone I meet! I truly believe it is all a gift. Our mortality is reason enough for me to push my limits and strive to be the best that I can be in all that I do. My motto is ‘Go BIG!! You’re going to die!’ I do not mean this in a negative way. I want you to celebrate now and push through! This does not last forever. This may be your only shot. Go big and laugh hysterically!”

Casey Gardiner

​Casey Gardiner has been flying and skydiving for over 6 years. After serving in the Marine Corps, he moved to Orlando Florida to finish his education. Casey quickly found he was spending all his free time either skydiving or in the tunnel and after completing school, he made the career choice to become an instructor and has never looked back. He currently works at IFLY Orlando and also with Royal Carribian as an IBA level 4 instructor. Casey loves to compete in neo-freestyle and dynamic flying competitions.
Age: 26Tunnel Hours: 2900+Home Tunnel: iFLY OrlandoOccupation: Level 4 IBA Instructor

Jon Walker

Jon Walker is an IBA trainer with approximately 5,000 hours in the tunnel since he started in 2007. He has 8 years experience working and coaching students at Skydive Arizona and plays sweet guitar. He has 2 open class VFS national medals. Jon has run tunnel camps worldwide. He is now the lead trainer at iFLY Houston.

Marlon

​New to the flight game, Marlon started flying in 2012 but wasted no time applying himself. Like so many his first introduction to tunnel flying was in Orlando. After moving half way across the country from his hometown of Baltimore Maryland he became an instructor at what is now Ifly Denver. “I wanted a job that I was passionate about and that I was going to love everyday”.

Since becoming an instructor three years ago, Marlon has achieved his level 4 instructor rating and is a proficient pro level flyer and coach.

“I love flying. There’s nothing else like it on the planet. Come see me in Denver or if I’m in your town…. Hit me up and let’s SHRED!!!!!!”

Jesse 'Tex' Leos

​Jesse “Tex” Leos always knew he would be a skydiver after looking up to his paratrooper dad growing up. Prior to skydiving, Tex was a college soccer player and later spent time becoming the first Texan (… and American) to play Australian Rules football in Geelong, Australia, as well as, representing the US National team abroad. Tex made his long-awaited first skydive on September 1st, 2013. After nearly selling off all his possessions to skydive, Tex began work as a tunnel instructor in November 2014 at iFLY Austin and can no longer imagine a career doing anything else but flying.

Tex recently made the move to Houston to be a part of a new world class tunnel and help grow Spaceland’s solid freefly scene. Tex has trained athletes most of his life in various sports and fitness, but has never been more passionate about coaching than when he is free flying. Tex’s immediate goal is to assemble a 4-way VFS team ready to challenge elite teams in both tunnel comps and skydiving nationals.

Alex Critchett

Alex Critchett followed his father’s footsteps into the world of skydiving in 2011. Eight jumps later, Alex traveled to Colorado for the Mountain State Boogie, hosted by Skyventure Colorado.

From the moment that he stepped into the wind Alex knew what he wanted to do with his life. Within 15 minutes of flight time, he had already started to sit-fly and showed profound potential in the art of tunnel flying.

Now a senior instructor and a dynamic pro level flyer, Alex looks to the future to bring home gold at his first tunnel competition and add his name to the list of world class tunnel flyers/skydivers from iFly Denver.

Jay Veenendaal

​A very rare tunnel instructor, as Jay Veenendaal is a skydiver who works in the tunnel and not a tunnel instructor who skydives. The first time he ever took a step inside a tunnel he was well into his skydiving career logging 5000 jumps. Jay started skydiving at the age of 16, he has traveled all over the U.S. Skydiving, finally arriving in Houston in 2010 to start working at Skydive Spaceland full time. Traveled to Florida to set up Skydive Spaceland Clewiston, then at the end of 2013 left to start working at iFLY. While working for iFLY, travel to 5 different tunnels before settling at iFLY Houston.

Stats:

Assistant Manager & Chief instructor of Spaceland

IBA Expert Pro Freeflyer

IBA Level 4 & Trainer at iFLY Houston

USPA Coach/Tandem/AFFI/Pro/S&TA

Completed USPA Instructor Examiner Course

High Performance Canopy Pilot

7000+ skydives

1700 AFF

2100 Tandems

1000 hop n pops

1100 Freefly

600 camera jumps

72 night jumps

141 demo jumps

400 belly

2 BASE jumps

“Mantra. . . there is two skydives on every jump, one is free fall, the second is the canopy.”

Jason David Frank

Jason David Frank was introduced to the skydiving sport during his run as a Power Ranger. During Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, his character jumped out of a plane with the fellow rangers. Although he did not actually jump during the movie, it did spark his attention towards the sport. Now, he have been in the sport for 15 years with more than 50 hours tunnel time, over 1200 free fly jumps, 2 balloon jumps, 2 helicopter jumps, and 15 BASE jumps alone in 2013-2014. His skydiving license is D24460. Jason Frank is sponsored by ChutingStar, Infinity, Adrenaline Obsession, iFly, and Liquid Sky.

In 2013, he mixed his love of skydiving and martial arts to break a Guinness World Record. He broke seven pine boards with his fist in free fall. His record break was featured in one of the episodes of his reality show, My Morphing Life. Adding another record to his repertoire, Jason, along with other skydivers, obtained the Ohio State Head Up Record in October 2015. Both Jason Frank and his wife, Tammie Frank, are planning to compete in a two way VFS one day in the near future. As his knowledge of skydiving and tunnel flying increases, he looks forward to do bigger and better things in the sport.

In March of 2015, Jason David Frank became a Certified IBA Instructor.

“When I skydive, I feel there is such a great amount of freedom. During a jump, I am free from the stresses of life, work, and thoughts. It’s all about the jump and it is very refreshing. I love to freefly. You can do so much while freeflying and to me it’s more challenging. You really learn what your body can do in the air. I have had exhilarating experiences skydiving in many different areas and I am excited to experience many more.”

Tammie Frank

​Tammie Frank began skydiving about 15 years ago. Since then, Tammie Frank has skydived over 900 times, has over 50 hours tunnel time and has a coach rating in the tunnels under Waz. In addition to this, Tammie Frank, who does mostly free fly jumps, also has 2 balloon jumps, 2 helicopter jumps, and 2 BASE jumps.

In 2014, Tammie Frank, along with her fellow women skydivers, earned her first World Record for the “First All Women Feet First Skydive” World Record, that was established in Skydive Spaceland in Texas. She is also planning on competing in a two way VFS with her husband and fellow skydiver, Jason David Frank, soon.

I love to skydive. I’m very passionate about skydiving and tunnel flying. I feel so much freedom and happiness when I skydive that I want to help beginners with their skydiving experience. I want to continue growing with this sport because I know there is so much more to learn.

Striker

A childhood spent playing ninja, doing acrobatics, aggressive inline-skating, and other sports have definitely been a heavy influence on Striker‘s over-all style of flying. By the age of 19 Striker became a body flight instructor and has been honing his skills and understanding ever since. Neo free-style, “trick-flying” has always been his forte.

Favorite tricks include: Side Fly, flip twist,walk walking, and diving head down from the top of the diffuser. With 7 years experience instructing at iFly Orlando, and only a handful of skydives, Striker is the epitome of a Tunnel Rat.

Besides instructing and flying, Striker has been an active front man, singing for original rock bands since High School, and has toured the U.S. and Tokyo, Japan. He’s recorded multiple works which are available for any interested. Most recently Striker has been involved with training new instructors to be employed on Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship Tunnels.

Harrel Kimball

Harrel Kimball started jumping in Tennessee at Music City Skydiving in 2009. After serving in the US Army, Harrel moved to the dropzone and became a full time skydiver. He now has over 1,500 jumps and is a USPA Coach, Tandem and AFF Instructor. Harrel is now working as a Tunnel Instructor at iFly Houston.

Andrew Farris

After leaving the United States Navy in 2010 and serving a 19 month deployment to Afghanistan, I quickly turned to skydiving as a passion. I began jumping every weekend at multiple drop zones and finally landed a job at Skydive Airtight in Skiatook, Oklahoma. After two years of working at the DZ and learning multiple jobs, I left to work on wind turbines for a year and a half. Unfortunately, my jumping suffered because of the required traveling for my job.

I began to realize I was completely unhappy with my life. That’s when I decided it was time to get back to doing what I love. I applied for iFly Dallas in Feb 2014 and happily joined their team. Ever since then, I have been the happiest I have been my entire life. I have learned incredible things about flying and skydiving from some of the most influential people in the sport. I will share that love and passion with whoever I encounter.

Canopy Pilots

Chris Brewer

Chris Brewer started skydiving in 2001. He has been working in the body flight industry for 21 years.

With over 5600 skydives, he is a multi-rated skydiving instructor and an IBA rated tunnel instructor with iFLY. He is also a current state and world record holder in the sport of skydiving, and also a competitive canopy pilot.